U.S. patent number 6,370,527 [Application Number 09/222,129] was granted by the patent office on 2002-04-09 for method and apparatus for searching distributed networks using a plurality of search devices.
This patent grant is currently assigned to AT&T Corp.. Invention is credited to Amitabh Kumar Singhal.
United States Patent |
6,370,527 |
Singhal |
April 9, 2002 |
Method and apparatus for searching distributed networks using a
plurality of search devices
Abstract
A meta-search engine apparatus and method for searching
distributed networks using a plurality of search devices. The
meta-search engine apparatus sends search queries to a plurality of
search engines and compiles the results obtained from each of these
search engines into a single ranked list. The results obtained from
each of the search engines includes a listing of the titles of
found sources of the search terms, or related search terms, and a
summary of the source. The compilation and ranking is based
primarily on the occurrence of search terms, or related search
terms, in the titles and summaries but may also be based on, for
example, relative weights given to each search engine, the number
of search engines returning the same source as a result of a
search, weighting of sections of the results obtained from the
search engines, and the like.
Inventors: |
Singhal; Amitabh Kumar (Basking
Ridge, NJ) |
Assignee: |
AT&T Corp. (New York,
NY)
|
Family
ID: |
22830971 |
Appl.
No.: |
09/222,129 |
Filed: |
December 29, 1998 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1; 707/999.007;
707/E17.108; 707/E17.032; 707/999.006 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
16/951 (20190101); Y10S 707/99936 (20130101); Y10S
707/99937 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06F
17/30 (20060101); G06F 017/30 () |
Field of
Search: |
;707/1-7 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Other References
Sample of All4One search results, no date. .
Sample of MetaCrawler search results, no date..
|
Primary Examiner: Black; Thomas
Assistant Examiner: Wang; Mary
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Oliff & Berridge, PLC
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A method for searching a distributed network, comprising:
submitting a query simultaneously to a plurality of search engine
devices, the query including at least one search term;
receiving search results from the search engine devices, the search
results including listings of sources containing the at least one
search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one search
term, wherein the listings of sources include at least one of a
title and summary of each source;
ranking the search results based on the occurrence of the at least
one search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one
search term, in at least one of titles and summaries of the search
results; and
compiling a single ranked list of the received search results,
wherein the ranking step comprises generating scores for each
source in the search results and sorting the search results into
the single ranked list based on the generated scores, and if two or
more sources have a same score, the ranking step further comprises
calculating a secondary score for the two or more sources and the
ranking of the two or more sources is based on the secondary
score.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ranking is further based on
at least one of rankings obtained from the search engine devices,
weighting factors based on a particular search engine device from
which the search results are retrieved, the number of repetitions
of the search results, and weighting of sections of the search
results obtained from the search engine devices.
3. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending the single
ranked list to a user device.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein a score of a source is calculated
by counting the number of occurrences of the at least one search
term, or a term or terms related to the at least one search term,
in the title and summary of the source.
5. The method of claim 4, further comprising multiplying at least
one of a count of the number of occurrences of the at least one
search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one search
term, in the title and a count of the number of occurrences of the
at least one search term, or a term or terms related to the at
least one search term, in the summary by a weighting factor.
6. The method of claim 4, further comprising multiplying the score
of a source by a weighting factor.
7. A searching apparatus for searching a distributed network,
comprising:
a controller; and
a ranking device, wherein the controller submits a query to a
plurality of search engine devices, the query including at least
one search term, and receives search results from the search engine
devices simultaneously, and wherein the ranking device ranks the
search results based on the occurrence of the at least one search
term, or a term or terms related to the at least one search term,
in at least one of titles and summaries of the search results,
wherein the controller compiles a single ranked list of the
received search results, the search results include listings of
sources containing the at least one search term, or a term or terms
related to the at least one search term, and wherein the listings
of sources include at least one of a title and summary of each
source, wherein the ranking device ranks the search results by
generating scores for each source in the search results and sorting
the search results into the single ranked list based on the
generated scores; and
wherein if two or more sources have a same score, the ranking
device calculates a secondary score for the two or more sources and
the ranking of the two or more sources is based on the secondary
score.
8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the ranking is further based
on at least one of rankings obtained from the search engine
devices, weighting factors based on a particular search engine
device from which the search results are retrieved, the number of
repetitions of the search results, and weighting of sections of the
search results obtained from the search engine devices.
9. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the controller sends the
single ranked list to a user device.
10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the ranking device calculates
a score of a source by counting the number of occurrences of the at
least one search term, or a term or terms related to the at least
one search term, in the title and summary of the source.
11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the ranking multiplies at
least one of a count of the number of occurrences of the at least
one search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one
search term, in the title and a count of the number of occurrences
of the at least one search term, or a term or terms related to the
at least one search term, in the summary by a weighting factor.
12. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the ranking device
multiplies the score of a source by a weighting factor.
13. A method for searching a distributed network, comprising:
submitting a query to a plurality of search engine devices, the
query including at least one search term;
receiving search results from the search engine devices;
ranking the search results based on the occurrence of the at least
one search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one
search term, in titles and summaries of the search results, and on
at least one of rankings obtained from the search engine devices,
weighting factors based on a particular search engine device from
which the search results are retrieved, the number of repetitions
of the search results, and weighting of sections of the search
results obtained from the search engine devices; and
compiling a single ranked list of the received search results, the
search results including listings of sources containing the at
least one search term, or a term or terms related to the at least
one search term,
wherein the listings of sources include at least one of a title and
a summary of each source; and
wherein the ranking step comprises generating scores for each
source in the search results and sorting the search results into
the single ranked list based on the generated scores, and if two or
more sources have a same score, the ranking step further comprises
calculating a secondary score for the two or more sources and the
ranking of the two or more sources is based on the secondary
score.
14. A searching apparatus for searching a distributed network,
comprising:
a controller; and
a ranking device, wherein the controller submits a query to a
plurality of search engine devices, the query including at least
one search term, and receives search results from the search engine
devices, wherein the ranking device ranks the search results based
on the occurrence of the at least one search term, or a term or
terms related to the at least one search term, in at least one of
titles and summaries of the search results, and on at least one of
rankings obtained from the search engine devices, weighting factors
based on a particular search engine device from which the search
results are retrieved, the number of repetitions of the search
results, and weighting of sections of the search results obtained
from the search engine devices, and wherein the controller compiles
a single ranked list of the received search results, the search
results include listings of sources containing the at least one
search term, or a term or terms related to the at least one search
term, and wherein the listings of sources include at least one of a
title and a summary of each source;
wherein the ranking device ranks the search results by generating
scores for each source in the search results and sorting the search
results into the single ranked list based on the generated scores;
and
wherein if two or more sources have a same score, the ranking
device calculates a secondary score for the two or more sources and
the ranking of the two or more sources is based on the secondary
score.
15. A method for searching a distributed network, comprising:
submitting a query to a plurality of search engine devices, the
query including at least one search term;
receiving search results from the search engine devices; and
ranking the search results based on weights assigned to at least
one particular search engine device from which the search results
are received,
wherein if two or more sources listed in the search results have a
same score, the ranking step further comprises calculating a
secondary score for the two or more sources and the ranking of the
two or more sources is based on the secondary score.
16. A searching apparatus for searching a distributed network,
comprising:
a controller; and
a ranking device, wherein the controller submits a query to a
plurality of search engine devices, the query including at least
one search term, and receives search results from the search engine
devices, and wherein the ranking device ranks the search results
based on weights assigned to at least one particular search engine
device from which the search results are received,
wherein if two or more sources listed in the search results have a
same score, the ranking device calculates a secondary score for the
two or more sources and the ranking of the two or more sources is
based on the secondary score.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for
searching distributed networks using a plurality of search
devices.
2. Description of Related Art
With increased use of the Internet and other similar distributed
networks, the ability to search these networks to locate
information and files is becoming increasingly important.
Currently, with the Internet, for example, the network is searched
with the aid of search engines. The search engines allow a user to
enter a search query, comprised of search terms, and the search
engine searches the various devices connected to the network for
the occurrence of these search terms in documents and files located
on the devices.
Each search engine, however, only covers a small portion of the
distributed network. Thus, in order to be assured that the user has
located all the sources of the search terms, available by any
search engine, within the distributed network, the search query
must be repeatedly entered into a number of different search
engines to locate all devices having information or files
containing the search terms. Thus, there is a need for new
technology to allow a user to search all of the available portions
of a distributed network without having to repeatedly reenter their
search query.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for
searching distributed networks using a plurality of search devices.
The apparatus includes a meta-search engine device that receives a
search query from a user device. The meta-search engine device
submits the search query to a plurality of search engine devices
and compiles the results from each of the search engine devices
into a merged list. The merged list is then sorted and ranked
according to predetermined criteria and displayed to the user via
the user device.
The ranking of the list may be based on, for example, the presence
of the search terms, or terms related to the search terms, in a
summary and/or title of the retrieved sources, rankings obtained
from the various search engine devices, weighting factors based on
the particular search engine devices from which the search results
are retrieved, the number of repetitions, if any, of retrieved
sources, and the like.
Thus, with the present invention, a user is able to search a
distributed network with a plurality of search devices and thus is
more assured that all locations containing information or files
related to his/her search query have been found. Furthermore, the
user is provided with a compiled listing with a single ranking
scheme to thereby determine which of the many retrieved search
locations are the most relevant to the search query. Additionally,
the single ranked list returned to the user is ranked primarily by
the occurrence of search terms, or terms related to the search
terms, in the title and summary of the sources and thus is more
representative of the relative importance of the sources than prior
art meta or single rank search devices.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The preferred embodiments of the present invention will be
described with reference to the following drawings, wherein like
numerals designate like elements, and wherein:
FIG. 1 is an example of a first type of meta-search engine;
FIG. 2 is an example of a second type of meta-search engine;
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system employing the present
invention;
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the meta-search engine of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is an example of scoring a source returned by a search
engine;
FIG. 6 is a flowchart outlining one exemplary process of the
meta-search engine of FIG. 4; and
FIG. 7 is a diagram of an example ranked merged list.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Meta-search engines have been developed to alleviate manually
repeating the entry of search queries into a number of different
search engines by automatically entering the search terms into a
plurality of search engines. FIG. 1 shows an example of one type of
meta-search engine called MetaCrawler, located on the Internet at
www.metacrawler.com. The results obtained from the plurality of
search engines are received by the meta-search engine and either
returned as separate lists of found sources or are compiled into a
list usually ranked by the number of search engines that found the
same source. In the first case, the user must parse through each
list to identify sources of interest. In the second case, the
ranked list does not provide a true representation of the relative
importance of each source since the ranked list is skewed by the
size of the portion and the particular sources included in the
portion of the network that each search engine covers.
FIG. 2 is an example of a meta-search engine All4One, located on
the Internet at www.all4one.com, which returns multiple lists of
found sources to the user. As shown in FIG. 2, each individual
window of the display represents a particular search engine. The
meta-search engine merely allows the simultaneous entry of a search
query into each of the search engines and simultaneous display of
search results.
With the present invention, a meta-search engine device sends
search queries to a plurality of search engines and compiles the
results obtained from each of these search engines into a single
ranked list. The results obtained from each of the search engines
includes a listing of the titles of found sources of the search
terms, or terms related to the search terms, or a summary of each
source, or both titles and a summary of each source. The
compilation and ranking is based primarily on the occurrence of the
search terms, or terms related to the search terms, in the titles
and/or summaries but may also be based on, for example, relative
weights given to each search engine, the number of search engines
returning the same source as a result of a search, weighting of
sections of the results obtained from the search engines, and any
other weighting factor readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in
the art.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a system employing the present
invention. The system includes a user device 100, local access
provider (LAP) 110, network 120, a meta-search engine device 130,
and search engine devices 140-160. The user device 100 sends
communication signals to the meta-search engine device 130 via the
LAP 110 and the network 120.
The user device 100 is any type device that is capable of sending
and receiving communication signals. For example, the user device
100 may be a computer, a terminal, a telephone, WebTV.TM., a
personal digital assistant (PDA), and the like. For simplicity of
the following description of the preferred embodiments, it is
assumed that the user device 100 is a personal computer. The user
device 100 sends and receives communication signals to and from the
network 120 via the LAP 110.
The LAP 110 is any type device that provides communication access
to the network 120. For example, the LAP 110 may be an Internet
service provider (ISP), a network server, a local exchange carrier
(LEC), and the like. The user device 100 may "log-onto" the LAP 110
in order to gain access to the network 120 by, for example, dialing
an access number of the LAP 110 and entering a user ID and/or
password.
The network 120 may be any type network that is capable of sending
and receiving communication signals. For example, the network 120
may be a data network, such as the Internet, an intranet, a local
area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), and the like. The
network 120 may also be a telecommunications network, such as a
local telephone network, long distance telephone network, cellular
telephone network, satellite communications network, and the like.
Furthermore, the network 120 may include more than one network and
may include a plurality of different types of networks. Thus, the
network 120 may include a plurality of data networks, a plurality
of telecommunications networks, a combination of data and
telecommunications networks, and the like.
The network 120 may include a plurality of storage devices (not
shown) which store information and files that may be of interest to
a user of the user device 100. The information and files stored on
these storage devices may be located by using any one or more of
the search engine devices 140-160 connected to the network 120.
These search engine devices 140-160 provide search capabilities for
searching portions of the network 120 (represented by dashed
lines). Thus, each search engine device 140-160 is capable of
searching certain ones of the plurality of storage devices storing
information and files of possible interest. Thus, search engine
device 140 may search a first portion A of the network 120, search
engine 150 a second portion B, and search engine 160 a third
portion C. These portions may overlap and thus two or more search
engine devices 140-160 may be capable of searching some of the same
storage devices.
A meta-search engine device 130 is connected to the network 120.
The meta-search engine device 130 allows a user to enter, via their
user device 100, a search query which is then used in each of the
plurality of search engine devices 140-160 to search for
information and files on the storage devices 140-160 that contain
the search query terms, or terms related to the search query
terms.
Related search query terms may be determined by each of the
individual search engine devices 140-160 when the search query is
sent to the search engine devices 140-160. Alternatively, the
meta-search engine device 130 may include an association generator
(not shown) that generates a listing of the terms associated with
the search terms. When the search query is sent to the search
engine devices 140-160, the search query may be modified to include
these related terms obtained from the association generator. Thus,
for example, if a user were to enter a search term "house," the
related search query terms that may be used by either the search
engine devices 140-160 or retrieved from the association generator
would include "apartment," "residence," "domicile," and the
like.
The meta-search engine device 130 compiles the search results from
the plurality of search engine devices 140-160 and ranks the search
results according to predetermined criteria. The ranked listing of
search results is then sent, over the network 120 and through the
LAP 110, to the user device 100 for use by the user.
The ranked listing of the present invention provides a single
ranking scheme that is readily understandable by a user.
Furthermore, the user is not required to physically enter their
search terms into each available search engine devices 140-160 and
sort through the multiple listings of retrieved locations.
Additionally, the ranked listing is more representative of the
actual relative importance of found sources. The term "source" as
used in this disclosure includes any file, document, web page,
distributed network location, and the like containing the search
terms, or terms related to the search terms, entered by a user into
the meta-search engine device 130.
FIG. 4 is an exemplary block diagram of the meta-search engine
device 130 of FIG. 3. The meta-search engine device 130 includes a
controller 200, a network interface 210, a memory 220 and a
meta-search ranking device 230. These devices 200-230 are in
communication with one another via the control/signal bus 240. As
described above, the meta-search engine device 130 may also include
an association generator (not shown) which includes a plurality of
terms and their associations for use when sending the search query
to the search engine devices 140-160. For purposes of the following
description, it will be assumed that the meta-search engine device
130 does not include the association generator and that related
search terms are determined by the search engine devices 140-160
themselves.
When a user device 100 accesses the meta-search engine device 130
by, for example, entering a universal resource locator (URL),
Internet protocol (IP) address, telephone number, or the like, into
the user device 100, the controller 200 receives a communication
signal from the user device 100 through the network interface 210.
In response to receiving the communication signal, the controller
200 sends a message to the user device 100, through network
interface 210, requesting that the user device 100 transmit a
search query. In addition to the request, the controller 200 may
also send advertisements and other information stored, for example,
in memory 220, to the user device 100 as is generally known in the
art.
The controller 200 then receives a reply from the user device 100
containing the search query. The controller 200 sends the search
query to each of the plurality of search engine devices 140-160
through network interface 210. The controller 200 receives the
search results from each of the plurality of search engine devices
140-160 and stores them in memory 220. The search results include a
listing of the titles of sources having the search terms, or
related search terms, of the entered query and a summary of each
source. The meta-search ranking device 230 then merges and sorts
the search results in memory 220 for the user's search query into a
single ranked list based on one or more ranking criteria.
The titles and summaries are not limited to any particular format
and may be any format readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in
the art. For example, the titles and summaries may include flowing
text, a listing of terms and the number of occurrences of the
terms, and the like. The format of the titles and summaries should
be mutually agreed upon by the developers of the plurality of
search engine devices 140-160 and the meta-search engine device
130, but mutual agreement is not necessary to the functioning of
this invention.
The primary ranking criteria is the occurrence of the search terms,
or related search terms, in the titles and summaries of sources
identified in the results obtained from the search engines.
However, the ranking criteria may include, for example, rankings
obtained from the search engine devices 140-160, weighting factors
assigned to the various search engines 140-160, the number of
search engine devices 140-160 that return the source as a result of
the search query, weighting of various sections of the search
results, the weights assigned to the search results by the search
engine devices 140-160, and the like.
The resulting ranked list is then sent to the user device 100 via
the network interface 210. In this way, the user of the user device
100 is provided with a single ranked list of sources of the entered
search terms covering all or a large part of the network 120.
As described above, the primary ranking criteria is the occurrence
of search terms, or related search terms in the title and summary
of sources identified in the search results of the search engines
140-160. Based on, for example, the number of occurrences of the
search terms, or related search terms, and their position within
the title or summary, a score may be calculated by the meta-search
ranking device 230 for the particular source. This score may be
further weighted by factors such as the number of search engine
devices 140-160 returning the source in their search results, the
particular search engine device that returned the source in its
search results, and the like. While scoring is the method of the
preferred embodiments, other methods of ranking the search results
based on the title and/or summary of the source may be used without
departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Furthermore, while specific scoring techniques are described, other
known or later developed scoring techniques based on the titles
and/or summaries of the sources may be used without departing from
the spirit and scope of the present invention.
FIG. 5 demonstrates an example of a possible scoring technique that
may be used with the present invention to obtain a score for a
particular source. As shown in FIG. 5, source 500 is returned by a
search engine device 140-160 in response to a search query 503
containing search terms 504 and 505. The source 500 includes a
title 501 and a summary 502.
In calculating a score for the source, the meta-search ranking
device 230 counts the number of occurrences of search terms, or
related search terms, within the title 501 and summary 502 of the
source 500. The count may be weighted, for example, depending on
whether the search term is found in the title 501 or the summary
502. For example, it may be determined that sources 500 having
search terms, or related search terms, in their titles are
generally more relevant to the search than sources not having the
search terms in their titles. Thus, the count of search terms and
related search terms in the title 501 may be weighted by a factor
of 1.5, 2.0, and the like, depending on the relative significance
placed on the titles of the sources. Similarly, if it is determined
that sources having search terms, or related search terms, in their
summaries are generally more relevant, weighting factors may be
applied to the count of search terms and related search terms in
the summaries.
As shown in FIG. 5, the particular ranking scheme chosen places a
weighting factor of 2.0 on the count of search terms and related
search terms in the title. Thus, in this example, the count of
search terms and related search terms in the title is 4.0. The
count of search terms and related search terms in the summary is
6.0 and thus the score for the source 500 is 10.0.
This score may be further modified by the number of search engine
devices 140-160 returning the source as a result of the search
query. Thus, if two search engine devices 140-160 return the source
500, the score may be weighted by a factor of 1.25, 1.50, or the
like. Additionally, the score may be modified by weights assigned
to particular search engine devices 140-160. Thus, if a first
search engine device is assigned a weight of 1.5 and a second
search engine device is assigned a weight of 2.0, then the second
search engine device is determined to be of slightly greater
importance than the first search engine. Thus, sources in the
search results returned by the second search engine will have
scores that reflect the relative importance of the second search
engine by having their scores weighted.
Once a score is determined for each of the sources returned by the
search engine devices 140-160, the sources are arranged in a list
ranked by score. The list will generally be ranked from highest
score to lowest score; however, any other ranking based on the
above described scores may be used without departing from the
spirit and scope of this invention. In this way, a single ranked
list is returned to the user so that the user may quickly identify
those sources of particular interest to the user.
If two or more sources have the same score, they may be ranked by
secondary scores, such as based only on the score of search terms
in the title or summary, and the like or they may be listed, for
example, in alphabetical order or arbitrarily.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary operation of the
meta-search engine device 130. As shown in FIG. 6, in step 600, the
controller 200 receives a query containing search terms from a user
device, and goes to step 610. In step 610, the controller 200 sends
the query search terms and/or related terms to each available
search engine device 140-160, and goes to step 620. The query
search terms and/or related terms may be formatted for the
particular search engine device to which they are being input.
In step 620, the controller 200 receives the results of each of the
search engine devices 140-160 and stores them in memory. In step
630, the controller 200 merges the results returned by each of the
search engine devices 140-160 into a single list. This process may
further include removing multiple listings of the same source while
still keeping a count of how many and which search engine devices
140-160 returned the source in their results. Control then
continues to step 640.
In step 640, the controller 200 calculates scores for each source
in the merged listing, and goes to step 650. In step 650, the
merged list is sorted by score so that a ranked merged list is
obtained. In step 660, the controller 200 outputs the ranked merged
list to the user device 100 for use by the user. Control then ends
in step 670.
As an example of how the above meta-search engine device 130
operates, assume a user, Alan, enters a search query comprising the
search terms "GARDEN TOOLS" into the meta-search engine device 130
via his user device 100 and network 120. The meta-search engine
device 130 enters the search query terms and/or related terms into
each of the search engine devices 140-160 and waits for the search
engine devices 140-160 to return the results of each of their
individual searches. Optionally, rather than waiting for the search
engine devices 140-160 to return the results, the meta-search
engine device 130 may wait for a predetermined period of time and
report only the search results returned during the predetermined
period of time.
Once the results are received from the search engine devices
140-160, the meta-search engine device 130 merges the results into
a merged list and removes redundancies while maintaining a count
and identification of how many and which of the search engine
devices 140-160 returned each source in the merged list. Once the
merged list is obtained, the meta-search engine device 130
calculates scores for each source based primarily on the occurrence
of search terms and/or related terms in the title and summaries of
the sources and sorts the merged list by score. The sorted list is
then returned to Alan's user device 100 as a single ranked
list.
FIG. 7 is an example of a ranked list returned in response to the
search query "GARDEN TOOLS." As shown in FIG. 7, the source "GARDEN
TOOLS WHOLESALE MARKET" is ranked number 1 with a score of 10, the
source "GARDEN ENTHUSIAST" is ranked number 2 with a score of 8,
and the source "BACKYARD DESIGNS" is ranked number 3 with a score
of 5. Thus, the source "GARDEN TOOLS WHOLESALE MARKET" is
determined by the meta-search engine device 130 to be the most
relevant source for the search query.
While the above embodiment assumes that all search engine devices
140-160 are utilized when a search query is entered by the user,
the user may also select which of the search engine devices 140-160
he/she wishes to use. Thus, the user is able to limit their search
to particular portions of the network 120. For example, if the user
wishes to only use search engine devices 140 and 150, only portions
A and B of the network 120 will be searched. Likewise, if the user
wishes to use search engine devices 140 and 160, only portions A
and C will be searched.
As shown in FIG. 4, the method of this invention is preferably
implemented on a programmed processor. However, the meta-search
engine device 130 can also be implemented on a general purpose or
special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or
microcontroller and peripheral integrated circuit elements, an ASIC
or other integrated circuit, a hardware electronic or logic circuit
such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device
such as a PLD, PLA, FPGA or PAL, or the like. In general, any
device on which a finite state machine capable of implementing the
flowchart shown in FIG. 6 exists can be used to implement the
meta-search engine device 130 functions of this invention.
While this invention has been described with specific embodiments
thereof, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications, and
variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
Accordingly, the preferred embodiments of the invention as set
forth herein are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various
changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of
the invention.
* * * * *
References